After 19 years directing in area theaters large and small, you'd hardly call Kimberly Senior any kind of sudden success. Still, it's hard to think of another Chicago director with a remotely comparable 2013-14 dance card. Senior has one show lined up after another, from Evanston to Broadway.

First up this fall is her Northlight Theatre production of Amy Herzog's acclaimed drama "4000 Miles." That's followed by the much-anticipated "Hedda Gabler" at Writers' Theatre in Glencoe, starring Kate Fry in the title role. Then Senior heads west to the La Jolla Playhouse in California for the world premiere of "The Who and the What," the latest drama from Ayad Akhtar, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Disgraced" was directed by Senior in Chicago.

"Disgraced," first produced to great acclaim by the American Theater Company, now appears set for the 2013-14 Broadway season, although various little things, like money and a theater, still are pending. Assuming it all comes together, as is likely, this would be Senior's Broadway debut.

Enough? Well, she's also signed up for the New York premiere of "The Who and the What" at the Lincoln Center, and, also this very same season, Herzog's "The Great God Pan" at the Next Theatre in Senior's hometown of Evanston, where she lives with her husband, the designer Jack Magaw, and her two young children.

Many directors rise with a playwright. Senior has risen with two at once. Aside from a brief North Shore excursion into the world of the late Henrik Ibsen ("Gabler"), Senior will be spending the entire coming year interpreting either Akhtar or Herzog.

"I feel very lucky to be getting jobs almost entirely on the backs of two writers," Senior said, wryly, the other day. "I think with Ayad (a Pakistani-American) there's something genetic, in that my dad is Syrian. I told Ayad today that I do my best work for him. He told me that he is happiest with me. There is just something we get in each others' work. There is nothing delicate between us."

And Herzog? "That's also really personal. I also respond to her work with my gut. Not academically or intellectually. With my gut. That's not always practical for a director. Her work really terrifies me."

Senior, 40, hails from New Jersey. She came to Chicago as an intern for the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, an internship that "turned out not to totally exist." But she did meet Curt Columbus and Mary Ann Thebus, two loquacious actor/directors in that orbit, who talked her out of ever going back to New York. "They kept telling me that Chicago was the best," Senior said.

She took their advice, working in a slew of small storefront venues. Actually, she still does. "Honestly," she said, "I've really never felt like, 'When is it going to be my turn?' I've always felt like I've had a lot of turns. In Chicago, you can feel the same pride in your work at Strawdog (Theatre) or the basement of the (now defunct) Cafe Voltaire. Critics have the same expectations for shows in those places. So do Chicago audiences. And then the artists speak to that. That is what is remarkable and unique about this town."

Senior would appear to be a good candidate to run a theater one day. Many freelance directors want that so badly, they can taste it, always. A steady gig is generally preferred. By most.

"No," Senior said. "I don't like being in charge. I know that sounds interesting for a director, and someone who also is a teacher and a parent, but I really do prefer to be a facilitator and a partner. And I love the life I have with my kids."